Couey case will go to jury today

Wednesday

Mar 7, 2007 at 1:42 AM

BY MABEL PEREZSTAR-BANNER

MIAMI - Jessica Lunsford was clawing at the black garbage bags that enveloped her body when she was placed in a shallow grave behind the single-wide mobile home John Couey lived in with his sister.
The 9-year-old Homosassa girl had been raped. Her wrists were bound with speaker wire and a stuffed dolphin tucked between her arms, medical examiner Dr. Steven Cogswell testified Tuesday.
Jurors - who will debate a verdict today - winced while learning that the cause of death was suffocation, and dirt found in the garbage bags and underneath her nails indicated that soil was being thrown on top of her while she was still alive. She had been buried for three weeks when her body was unearthed.
Couey, 48, is charged with murder, sexual battery, kidnapping and burglary - and if convicted of first-degree murder, prosecutors will argue for the death penalty.
Fifth Circuit State Attorney Brad King candidly said the medical examiner's testimony on the last day before closing arguments was a strategic move. Friday was another powerful day of testimony, and jurors had all weekend to think about the grisly details.
"It answers the questions [of Jessica's death] and it also flowed with the case. The statements that he made were strategical," King said.
Cogswell testified Jessica was trying to get out of the bag: "Those two fingers were poking at the bag to push through.... She is poking her fingers out of the bag."
Not only did several jurors wince as Cogswell talked about the manner in which Jessica died, but during testimony about her sexual battery injuries, several jurors teared up, including a University of Miami employee who has been emotional throughout the trial.
Later, Mark Lunsford talked to the Star-Banner about how he felt listening to the doctor talk about his daughter's death.
His chin quivering, Lunsford said, "That's what I had to do. I can't, I'm not going to let her go through this by herself to the end. I have to be in there for her. We couldn't be there for her when she needed us. So we're here and I'm not going to leave her alone. They, our kids don't deserve that."
Defense attorney Daniel Lewan called one witness - Dr. Robert Berland, a forensic mental health expert.
Berland testified that in his opinion Couey is mentally retarded and suffers from mental illness, and jail officers isolated him and used rewards to get him to confess.
Other testimony Tuesday included that of Citrus County lead detective Gary Atchison, who testified that Couey made statements to him while he (Atchison) was at the Citrus County Jail overseeing an evidence technician collecting a hair sample.
Those statements were never recorded.
A corrections officer also testified about incriminating statements Couey made to her. "He was afraid that they would find her and that he had to get rid of her," Nathalia Windham recalled. Couey also told her about the garbage bag, she said.
"He told her to get in a plastic bag 'cause he didn't want people to see her crossing the street," she said.
Windham and another corrections officer, John Reed, testified that Couey made incriminating statements to them between January and April 2006. They did not come forward with information until Jan. 10, 2007, after several other alleged confessions were ruled inadmissible by the court.
In cross-examination, the defense questioned whether those statements ever occurred. Corrections officers never documented Couey's statements and never recorded the incidents in a daily log book.
Closing arguments are scheduled to start at 8:30 a.m. today and are expected to last a couple of hours.
Mabel Perez may be reached at mabel.perez@starbanner.com or 867-4106.